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House votes for stricter standards
By Ken Dilanian
USA Today
August 2, 2007
WASHINGTON — Legislation that would tighten ethics rules and shine more light on how lobbyists seek to influence lawmakers passed the House of Representatives overwhelmingly Tuesday on its way to a likely Senate vote this week.
The bill, which would ban members of Congress from accepting most types of gifts and trips from lobbyists, has been praised as landmark reform by a coalition of public interest groups that includes Common Cause and the League of Women Voters. Democrats' capture of Congress last fall was fueled in part by a series of lobbying-related scandals.
One of the measure's provisions would require disclosure of a long-standing practice in which lobbyists collect fundraising checks for legislators' campaigns.
Another provision would require Internet disclosure, 48 hours before a vote, of "earmarks" — lawmaker-requested spending provisions for special projects, usually in the lawmakers' state or district. Lawmakers also would have to declare their families would not directly benefit financially from the earmarks — which have been at the heart of several recent scandals, including the bribery conviction of former California representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
"This bill goes a long way toward connecting the dots and removing the veil of secrecy that too many members have been all too happy to hide behind for far too long," said Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan watchdog group.
Two Republican senators, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, say they will try to defeat the bill because they believe the earmark language doesn't go far enough. Coburn objected to allowing the Senate majority leader to decide what provisions count as earmarks.
It is unclear whether other senators would be willing to vote against the bill, which passed the House 411-8 one day after the FBI raided the home of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.
"What we did today was momentous," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. "The link between lobbyists and legislation that we have broken is something that will make a difference in the lives of the American people. … We are free to act in the people's interest instead of the special interest."
The House instituted some of the provisions this year as part of internal rule changes.
The bill does not address whether an outside body should handle ethics complaints against members of Congress. A task force appointed by Pelosi to study that issue has twice missed deadlines to report its findings.
Watchdog groups, such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), have criticized congressional ethics committees, saying they've done a poor job of investigating Congress members. Melanie Sloan of CREW said, "Questions remain as to how these new rules will be enforced"
The bill also would not change a culture in which members of Congress raise increasing amounts of money from special interests with a stake in their decisions.
Though lobbyists would be barred from buying a lawmaker a cup of coffee, they would still be allowed to pay indirectly for food, catering and travel in connection with a fundraiser for the same person, subject to $10,000 annual limits on giving by political action committees.
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